Bioshock: Infinite!

5:55 am. I just finished the best. No the greatest video game I have EVER played. I’ve never been drawn into a narrative in a video game like this ever. BioShock infinite is the best creation man has ever made. I just. I just cannot express the pure emotion I am experiencing. No movie. No book. No song has done this to me. I was screaming ” WHAT THE FUUUUCK ” over and over and over at the end. Do yourself a favor and go buy this game and enjoy a masterpiece.

I touched on this on Facebook, but I’m having a hard time believing that this game exists. It’s the single most polished, atmospheric, thought-provoking title that I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

I’ve just passed Monument Island, I can’t wait to see what else the game has in store for me.

It’s just freaking beautiful. I’m playing on console, which is obviously not nearly as good looking (or sounding) as the PC version, and I’m STILL consistently in awe of just how beautiful this game can be.

BAH! I can’t wait until Monday and Tuesday come, I’m hoping to get at least a few more hours in at that point.

Okay, I’m going to request help in determining the logic and ending for Infinite. Spoilers below!

My first question lies within the laws of these “infinite” universes. At the end, there are more than a few Elizabeth’s as they are drowning DeWitt AKA Comstock. After he dies, they all disappear. Did they all disappear because DeWitt is dead and therefore could not have fathered Elizabeth? If that’s so, then why did ALL of the Elizabeth’s disappear? Just because one DeWitt is killed, it doesn’t mean ALL DeWitt’s in the infinite universes are dead too, right? Because then by that logic, there’s a universe in which DeWitt was stillborn, since there are infinite variables and outcomes, and if that’s the case, there should be no Bioshock Infinite in the first place!

I can’t help by feel like the importance of Bioshock’s 1 & 2 have been diminished because of Infinite. Infinite made me feel like my universe doesn’t matter. If I make a mistake, what’s stopping me from entering another universe and fixing things? Or even just staying there? What about all the little sisters I saved in the original Bioshock? Does it not matter because they’re either dead or who knows what in a different universe? If they’re dead, how are they alive in my Bioshock?!

My second question is about the “tears”.

I understand Elizabeth couldn’t master her power because the tower she lived in was draining her. But once she left the tower, she seemed to be able to pull things (Mosquitos, Turrets, Health Packs) through tears at will. She was even able to pull a train in once, and a flat plain with a tornado twice. In the plain, I noticed the train, making the same train count go to 2. If the tears are random, are you telling me lightning struck twice at this point? If not, why didn’t she just open a tear into Comstock’s airship and get it over with? And why did it matter that she seek revenge on this Comstock when she knew an infinite amount of Comstock’s existed? What’s the point?

while i appreciated the effort, the ending (and thus entire storyline) falls apart if given more than a passing thought, so i’ve just resorted to taking it a face value. if you assume Bioshock’s multiverse is made an infinite amount of discrete but branching universes than there is nothing stopping one from jumping around creating divergent timelines at will with no consequence. if it’s made of an infinitesimal amount of co-inhabited universes, though, then there are ripple effects of consequence of single actions across multiple universes.

but as for the tears, the story does somewhat account for Lizzy’s unbalanced abilities. the tower both drained and suppressed her powers. she explains to Dad at first that she can see into tears and open them, but can’t predict when or where they appear or control where they lead, open more than 1 at a time, etc. like any good powerful young mutant her powers grow with duress, which explains how she was able to pull in a twister and/or train from the same space/time at will. first the train when being chased (above average duress), then the twister from possibly the same point in space/time when coming out of the procedure (extreme duress). it’s not until the tower is destroyed that her full power is unleashed, allowing her to open tears to any point in space/time at will.

Jake:
1. Specifically, Booker was drowned at the exact moment he had the ability to become Comstock. By negating the chance of Booker becoming Comstock several things in the continuum no longer occur, starting with Anna becoming Elizibeth, Columbia being founded, the hundred coin flips, everything that requires Columbia or Comstock to exist is forever nullified. Booker and his daughter however do still exist as evidenced after the credits (Fucking Aftercredit stingers!) but Anna never lost her finger, never gained the ability to fabricate Tears, and Booker never became Comstock. Comstock is gone, but so is Elizabeth as we knew her.

2. The underlying assumption is given by Liz at the end of the game, which is very similar to the series “Higurashi: When They Cry” where one character is transported to a new version of her town when she dies, this new world is mostly similar but there are key changes. One person may suddenly be a smoker, one may be clinically insane, waffles might always be on sale. Thus its *possible* that spiritually we have been playing Booker all along. Evidence is in the Luteces, who in their conversations always seem to purposefully be the polar opposite of what the other is saying “Living Lived, will Live/Dying, Died, will die”. This all strongly points to the possibility that the Luteces are the same person but due to the Space-Time Continuum were born different genders.

So Rapture was not exactly “moot”, Jack either saved or destroyed it, and the Big Daddy saved or destroyed it again. At the ends of their lives, Fate and Time reloaded the gun, spun the chambers, and thus the Comstock dilemma occurred. Bookers soul up to Infinite seemed doomed to explore failed utopias for the rest of space and time, a cycle presumably stopped by the Luteces. Or has it? All we know is that Columbia no longer exists, and time being so complex will inevitably be thrown out of whack again.

3. In my play-through, very little information on the Siphons was found so my knowledge on them is rather low. However I have observed that with the Siphons in place it forms as a “Block”, thus it stands to reason any location with a Siphon can neither be Teared out or into; and we can expect Comstock realizes this. As to why Elizabeth suddenly wishes for revenge, well, she begins to understand and remember that like Comstock she was created, not born. She understands that in order to break the cycle she needs to kill Comstock and destroy the Siphon to unleash her full energy over space and time. While there may be infinite universe, not all of them contained Comstock, just like not all Universes contained Rapture, only ones where Andrew Ryan was capable of building it. Thus by preventing Comstock from being created and killing Booker at that point in time she ensured that Columbia, Comstock, and by proxy her, were never created.